The long-awaited official announcement is in. Jaren Kanak has committed to play football for the University of Oklahoma. Kanak, who was primarily recruited by Brent Venables when he was the defensive coordinator at Clemson, was intent on playing for Venables, even if the new Sooners coach wasn’t planning on poaching recruits from his former employer.
It doesn’t come as much of a surprise as the former Clemson commit enrolled at Oklahoma for the Spring semester, making his commitment a foregone conclusion.
#BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/4YYutjtDTr
— ✞ Jaren Kanak ✞ (@KanakJaren) January 6, 2022
It was back in the first week of December that Kanak was first projected to flip his commitment from the Clemson Tigers to the Oklahoma Sooners by Ryan Wallace who covers Kansas State football and recruiting for GoPowerKat.com. Then less than 10 days later Anna Hickey of Clemson 247 flipped her projection to the Sooners. Four days later, Jaren Kanak looked to be enrolled at the University of Oklahoma making his commitment all but official. While his official commitment came nearly two weeks after decommitng from Clemson, the writing was on the wall. The Sooners were going to add the No. 1 player from the state of Kansas to Brent Venables and Ted Roof’s defense.
Kanak has legit track speed and looks as if he’ll play linebacker for the Oklahoma Sooners. Though with his speed and size, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Sooners could use him at safety.
Here’s what National Recruiting Analyst Allen Trieu of 247Sports had to say in his recruiting profile of Kanak.
Track guy who has run as fast as 10.37 at over 200 pounds. Multi-positional player in high school but future projection is most likely outside linebacker. Explosive player who has good burst, acceleration and obvious speed to pursue on defense. Ball skills he shows on offense should translate to defense where he should be a strong coverage backer if that is indeed where he ends up playing. Times his blitzes well, and when combined with his quickness, that allows him to penetrate and make plays in the backfield. He shows physicality as a blocker on offense which should translate to taking on blocks in college, although right now, we see him running free more on his high school film than needing to go through blockers. In general, there are few glaring weaknesses here, just a need to concentrate on one position and learn to play that spot. We assume he will easily add the weight needed to play linebacker but guys with his track speed and offensive background tend to be very succesful in making that transition. – Trieu, 247Sports
Jaren Kanak gives the Oklahoma Sooners 14 four-star commitments for the 2022 recruiting class. Kanak ranks as the No. 10 athlete in the nation and the No. 253 player in the nation for the 2022 recruiting cycle.
Under Brent Venables, the Sooners continue to add fast and athletic players to a defense that is being reshaped before our very eyes.
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